Chisum (1970) -
If you're going to watch a western it really should be a John Wayne one. In my mind, he embodies what a cowboy was. He has the honourable presence of a good man trying to live a good life from the land in this one and I feel like he's never played any character with a bad bone in their body.
It was actually interesting to see a 'Billy The Kid' film from a different perspective with the focus on 'Chisum' instead and the plot was very good of course because the films about the outlaw have that great history to start with.
I've watched a lot of Billy the Kid films - 'Young Guns/II' (1988/90) , 'Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid' (1973) and more, but I'm still not sure I really know what happened, because each version is so different.
I did like this film though.
I'd never really bothered with old westerns before, but I have really developed a taste for Mr Wayne's films. That might be because his characters and sometimes his appearance too, have reminded me of my Grandad, but a large part of it would be because John just did a good job of things. He had a screen presence that I can't deny and I've never seen anything too corny or hammy from him. The odd bit of cheese maybe, but only when it was fitting.
I also liked Geoffrey Deuel as Billy too, he was cute and how I have imagined 'The Kid' to be.
There were quite a lot of other characters and many of them looked the same, so it became a bit difficult to keep up with them all earlier on, but after a while it was clearer, especially once they started to cull a few of them.
The story reminded me of 'The Rustler Of Wind River', a book that I recently read that also featured a corrupt man trying to take land that doesn't belong to him and manipulating the local army. It was a surprisingly good read for a book over 100 years old.
I wouldn't say that this was the best John Wayne film, but it was enjoyable and I would gladly watch it again.
557.91/1000.
If you're going to watch a western it really should be a John Wayne one. In my mind, he embodies what a cowboy was. He has the honourable presence of a good man trying to live a good life from the land in this one and I feel like he's never played any character with a bad bone in their body.
It was actually interesting to see a 'Billy The Kid' film from a different perspective with the focus on 'Chisum' instead and the plot was very good of course because the films about the outlaw have that great history to start with.
I've watched a lot of Billy the Kid films - 'Young Guns/II' (1988/90) , 'Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid' (1973) and more, but I'm still not sure I really know what happened, because each version is so different.
I did like this film though.
I'd never really bothered with old westerns before, but I have really developed a taste for Mr Wayne's films. That might be because his characters and sometimes his appearance too, have reminded me of my Grandad, but a large part of it would be because John just did a good job of things. He had a screen presence that I can't deny and I've never seen anything too corny or hammy from him. The odd bit of cheese maybe, but only when it was fitting.
I also liked Geoffrey Deuel as Billy too, he was cute and how I have imagined 'The Kid' to be.
There were quite a lot of other characters and many of them looked the same, so it became a bit difficult to keep up with them all earlier on, but after a while it was clearer, especially once they started to cull a few of them.
The story reminded me of 'The Rustler Of Wind River', a book that I recently read that also featured a corrupt man trying to take land that doesn't belong to him and manipulating the local army. It was a surprisingly good read for a book over 100 years old.
I wouldn't say that this was the best John Wayne film, but it was enjoyable and I would gladly watch it again.
557.91/1000.